Yogi tea wisdom today - A relaxed mind is a creative mind...

I don't know what I look more forward to in the morning,  my nice steaming cup of tea or the little bits of inspiration on each tea bag!!

 

This morning for breaky I made a GREEEEEN Monster - that wasn't green, it looked more like swamp water... mmmmmmm how I love my swamp water!

It had frozen strawberries, loads of spinach, 1/2 a nanner, hemp seeds, honey and water.

I'm trying to cut down on a few calories here and there, plus we go through WAY to much almond milk.

I should take out stocks in Almond Breeze hehe...

Here is a close up of the hemp seeds - I love a little substance in my smoothies..

It was good!!!!

Yesterday I took a little drive to the City that is about 45 mins from here.  I dislike driving very much but guess what?   That is where my school is, so starting in September I will be driving there EVERY DAY!!  ick.

At least there are beautiful views.   They were taken while driving... I promise I was being safe!!

This is a little bit of the ocean.  The cruise ships pass through here on their way to Alaska!!

The beautiful sun....

Then mountains and farm land!!

I promise I will take you on a tour of my cute little town soon!!  So many beautiful little spots.

After the drive, I met up with Dave for shopping and lunch (He works in that town too)

I was hunting for a new yoga mat and found a great one at Winners. 

I love pink!!

It cost $24 and I got the mat, a stretchy band and a pilates video.

I also bought some christmas bulbs and yoga DVD

Lunch... lunch was AMAZING!!  

I tried sooooo hard to remember to take a picture... but I forgot until I ate half and it looked messy, but it was quinoa tabbouli (yum) with chicken, avacado, cucumber and tomatoes. 

It was so good.  I love being able to eat at restarants where there are healthy choices.

When we got home I had 1/2 a beer with clamato ~YUM~

Or should I say clamato with 1/2 a beer! haha... 

 

And we made dinner.  Lime marinated chicken, french fries (bad, that's 2 days in a row, at least they were baked),  brocolli and califower.  YUM!!  I was full after my beer, so I only ate the fries and veggies!

 

I also forgot the other day to show you my YUMMY breaky.

A bun with sundried tomatoe mayo, sliced tomatoe, scrambed egg with kale and green onion.

It was yum!!

We are off to find a Christmas tree today ... which is getting me in the mood for Christmas.

I am thinking of starting my christmas baking...  I want to make these, but I am hoping to make them a bit healthier.

Peanut Butter Cups (Reeses)

• 1 11-12 ounce bag chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp shortening

Filling:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp butter, melted

Melt chocolate chips and shortening. Fill paper muffin cups ¼ full and spread chocolate around the sides. Place in freezer to harden.
Filling: Mix 3 ingredients and chill. Roll in balls and place in cups. Pour melted chocolate over top. Chill until set.

Do you think I could sub coconut oil for the shortening?? 

I am also going to test out OhSheGlows pumpkin pie I don't like pumpkin pie much, but this looks good!!

What do you make for yummy treats for Christmas?   This is my first time baking for Christmas, so I need some ideas/inspiration.

Have a great day !!! 

Jessica

Want to come for a walk with me?

Hey guys,
So after over a week of pouring rain and wind, we finally had a somewhat sunny day here on the West Coast.  I jumped at the opportunity to go for a long walk!!   It was so beautiful, and I didn't run into a single person.

Take a walk with me...

What is that big bright thing in the sky?

 

Look at all the beautiful moss hanging from the trees. 

The pictures don't do it justice.  The moss almost glows!

  

More moss...

 

The trail that leads home... this trail is only 2 minute walk from my front door...

I really tried to take it all in, I walk through these trails all the time and don't even notice my surroundings.

This time when I walked I listening to all the little birdies, felt the mud squishing under my feet, noticed all the little rain drops on the trees... It was fantastic. 

I also got an email from a fabulous friend this morning.  We reunited this summer, and it was so great to see her and I just got an email telling me she is reading (and loving) my blog!! Yay Tisha, i miss you soooo much!!   I tried to find an "old school" picture of us, but couldn't find one! boo

Anywhoo.. no food news this morning.   I ate pub food last night and LOVED IT.  French fries and burger smothered in guacamole.. hehe...    I ate healthy all morning... but then had some greasy goodness for (a very late) dinner.     It was good, but I won't be doing it again soon!!

Have a great day, I'm off for a lunch/shopping date with my hunny!!

Here's one of my favorite pictures of us.  Thanks to Megan Brown Photography!!

*smiles*

I am in such a fantasticcccccccccc mood tonight I felt like I should post something.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers!!  I hope you take some time to relax and enjoy your holiday!!

I'm feeling greatful today too.  Loosing my job was really hard on me, but I full believe everything happens for a reason.  Tonight was a prime example.   When I lost my job, I picked up some hours doing a recreation program with special needs adults.   It is the joy of my life right now.  I come home and my cheeks hurt from smiling and having so much fun!!  Tonight we sang our hearts out at Kareoke.  There is one guy who doesn't speak at all, but he sings like a dream... tonight he was even dancing!!   Loved it!! 

Anyways, I had a great day.  Spent the morning reading every single blog possible, then taught a class, then WENT TO THE GYM (that makes 4/4-thanks for the encouragement!) then I went to work for a few hours tonight (and sang Britney Spears, loud and proud). 

I also realized that I have lots (almost 100 readers in one day) new readers on my blog, so I felt the need to introduce you to our pound puppy Lance!   I was walking him yesterday and a lady solved our mystery of what his breed was.   We knew he was pitbull crossed with something, she enlightened us.  He is a pitbull boxer cross.   After we googled him, every picture was pretty much his twin!!

 

His head really is bigger than his body, he looks like a bobble head in person too!!  hehe..

He's pretty camera shy, and attacks me every time I take a picture!!  haha

Now before you think "pitbull" let me tell you, this guy is a complete nut, he has 0 aggression, I would trust him around kids in a second,  he would lick them to death but he's a lover not a hater!! :) 

Ok this is a food blog right??  

Breaky was a green monster and then laterish I had scrambled eggs with kale and green onions, an orange and 1 piece of toast...

 

The for lunch... YUM.. same as yesterday plus a handful of chocolate chips!

So good!! I might even have more tomorrow!!

Dinner(?) was another green monster, ginger snap lara bar and an apple!! 

I didn't have a single chip that was at work tonight!!  And it was HARD!!  

I'm starving now, I might have to eat something else too..

I promsie it will be healthy (probably oatmeal)

Anywhoo...  sweet dreams blog world!! 

I hope your Thursday is full of fabulous things!

Jessica

PS.  Suscribe to my RSS feed, as I don't think my email thingy is working!!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/DairyFreeBetty

If anyone has any tips, I'd be forever greatful!!

PS.

Hey guys,
I'm not sure that my email feed is working?  Has anyone gotten an email post from me yet?  
Any tips on how to fix this??

Be proud of who you are...

Once again, that was my Yogi tea wisdom today "Be proud of who you are"   I get excited in the morning to make my tea just to see what it tells me!! :)   I got a good one last night too... "An attitude of gratitude brings opportunities"  Love it! 

First off I have to say THANK YOU  for all the comments yesterday.  It seems so silly to be so excited about it, but it honestly makes my day!  Do any of you other bloggers feel the same way?  I'm also happy to say today is my 1 month blog anniversary and I've had over 850 visits to my blog!!  You guys rock my socks!! 

So many cool things have happened since I started blogging!!

• I am 100% in love with green monsters - my energy is through the roof, my finger nails are the longest and strongest they have ever been, my skin feels super soft and I feel like my normal nutty self again.
• I am challenged every day to eat healthy (and clean) just so I can blog about it!!
  
• I've met lots of cool people in blogger world
  
• I realized how much I love taking pictures *note to self, must shop for after Christmas sales for a good camera* 
• I have learned about so many yummy foods, and all the benefits of eating such food - chia seeds, amazing grass, green tea, pumpkin, oatmeal.  
• I just love writing and learning together all the great things about being dairy free!! 
• Oh and I've bought some cool dishes, just for pictures!! hehe..*note to self again - must shop for after Christmas sales for a house with more kitchen cabinets! hehe

Besides that I found some really cool links today... 

Make your own pumpkin butter (mom you will love this!) This stuff looks amazing - if only I could find canned pumpkin at the grocery store... I've searched and searched but cannot find??  Any ideas?

Create an allergy card-this looks AMAZING - type in your allergy and the language where you are travelling and you can print out a card that you can give in restaraunts etc.  thanks to "Go Dairy Free" for this! 


!#@^@#@^@CANADIAN GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!!&$%@$#@  - if you win you have to share with me, because I am desperate to try these - (but the shipping is too rich for my unemployed butt these days)


So besides all that excitement!! 

The weather here is icky... Another beautiful west coast winter day!!  
Liquid sunshine - that's what I have learned to call it, so I don't get down!!  Hehe..

  Remember this photo from early late September?? Our beautiful backyard!!

 

Well this is what it looks like this morning.   And it's 9am- it's its as light as it's going to get!!

 

I could easily live somewhere that was warm and sunny all year long!!

Makes me want to cozy up and never leave the house!!

Well yesterday was a busy day day and I only got a chance to take a picture of my yummy lunch

Salmon with mayo, kale and green onions (from the garden), cucumbers and brown rice crackers!

It was soo good, I'm probably going to have it again today. 

I also had a fantastic green monster for breaky this morning - 1/2 banananananana, frozen strawberries, spinach, peanut butter, a wee bit of honey and chia seeds...   Oh and almond milk...

It was super fantastic and filling!!  I would have taken a picture, but it looked like swamp mud!!

Well today is another busy day, so I must get choppin'

Have a fantastic day and "Be proud of who you are" because I (and many other people I'm sure) think you are fantastic!!

Jessica

P.S.  Here is a little more to start your day...

Act, don't react...

I probably won't get much time to write a real post today as it's a busy day.   BUT I am happy to annouce that I am 3 for 3 as far as working out since I wrote my heart to heart post the other day.   Today I did the turbo jam abs (great ab workout), almost 10 mins of hula hooping - eek I'm going to be sooo sore tomorrow, and an arm workout.     Yesterday was an hour and a half walk and 1 hour of yoga!! :)

Anyways, have a great day... I'm off to figure out what to eat today... so far I've had a green monster and scrambled eggs... oh and a YOGI Green tea... Yum... the wisdom  tip was "Act, don't react! 

Have a great day!!

PS.  You can now suscribe to my blog via email!!  Just add your email address on the right and you will be sent all new posts!! 

Today was a good day!!

Well if you read my previous post you would have heard my exciting news today! 

(Before you read on, my spell check isn't working, so don't mind all my bad spelling, it was never one of my strong suits hahaha)

I got approved for funding for school.  A little background on this.  I got bumped out of my job (that I loved) of 3 years in September.  Broken hearted and unsure of what to do next I went through EI and applied to get "re-training"  It was quite a bit of work doing the whole process but it will be worth it as they pay for pretty much 70% of all living expenses and 70% of school costs for the whole 2 year program.  (There are some other details in there, but that is the basics)  So I will be taking the social service worker dipolma starting in September!!  Sooo excited/nervous!

I spent the day playing on twitter (add me!!) and on the foodbuzz website.  I'm hoping I can get lots of people checking out my blog, because I really really enjoy writing it!!

I pretty much just had a green monster today and left over pasta for breaky and lunch.

  Then I packed a bunch of snacks because I had to teach a class and then had my yoga/climbing session (which is soo fun!!)  I am loving the yoga, she's been challenging us to pretty tricky stuff, I love it!! 

Here is what I packed up for snacking.

I only ate the clif builder bar yay protein!!! 

I desperately need a new yoga mat.  Any good suggestions on where to get one

(besides lulu because they are way to expensive)

Then I stopped at our little (somewhat expensive) health food store and bought some goodies.

I begged and pleaded with them to order in amazing grass and they said NO.. booo to them!!

Yogi-kombucha green tea (should be interesting?)

White Chia seeds (after all the reviews from other blogs, I had too!)

Extra virgin coconut oil - the last one I bought was just "virgin" and it had no coconut smell boo

Gingersnap Larabar

Nutritional Yeast

Then I finally got home...  I was starving, so I made some oatmeal (I forgot how much I loved oatmeal)

Oatmeal

Almond Milk

Crasins

Chia Seeds

4 or 5 chocolate chips

It was goooood!!

Oh and my freeeeeeeeee alive magazine... It's a fantastic read! 

Today was not the most balanced food, but it was a very busy day!

There is something I've been eating lately that is really bugging my stomach too, I've had an upset tummy every day this week...  Must figure out what it is.  I have a sneaky suspicion that it is flax. 

What are your remedies for an upset stomach?

I usually just take my probiotics, eat some ginger and drink green tea, but these aren't working this week.  

Goodnight and sweet dreams oh lovely blogger world!! 

Thought you would want to know...

I got approved for funding for school!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!   This is such amazing news and makes that part of life so much easier and less stressful!! :)

Have a great day!!

Yummy Dinner!!!!!!

I think I may have died and gone to Heaven!!  I just made the most AMAZING pasta dish. YUM!!
Here were the ingredients

Whole Wheat Pasta

Organic Sweetie cherry tomatoes

Marinated Artichokes

Chicken Spolumbo Sausage - so good, no fillers!!

Sun dried tomatoes (did not use I couldn't get it open boo)

Spinach (also didn't use because I need them for my green monsters)

Sun dried tomato gourmet mayo- amazing

Things to add next time;

Spinach

Basil

Roasted Garlic

Roasted peppers/zuchinni

I cooked up the sausage and pasta and then tossed it all together...

Then I mixed in the mayo about 2 tbsp - It's hard to find "creamy" pasta sauce that has no dairy.

When I received this mayo as a gift, pasta was my first thought - It was amazing, creamy just like alfredo!

 

I honestly felt like I had died and gone to heaven!!  It was sooo decedent.

Glad I didn't have to share it with anyone though, now I have at least 2 more meals leftover YAY!!

Besides this wonderfulness, I went for an hour and a half long walk/pull with my parents and Lance.

It was quite the workout, as he hasn't been for a walk for awhile because of our insane wind/rain storms.

It was great.  I love the trail that we went on, and it's super close to home!   After that I came home and watched some Planet Earth - what an amazing show, if you haven't seen it yet, go get it NOW!!

I am officially done all my Amazing Grass samples and am in love!!  The chocolate was not for me at all.  I liked all the other flavors and I thought the wheat grass was fantastic.

If you live in CR and want to order any let me know and we can order together and split the (expensive) shipping!  Here is the website.  I really really don't like the chocolate one though, so if you want mine, maybe we can make a deal, I've only used 2 scoops out of it!! :)  

I'm obbessed with green monsters right now and have 2 per day for the last few days. 

My energy is great and I feel fantastic!!

(Besides being tired from the lack of sleep from all the adventures this weekend)

We had a great night with friends on Friday night... and then went for sushi last night with some newer-ish friends that are fabulous!!   We ate way to much and had a great time! I had miso soup, green tea, a dynamite roll (super spicy tempura prawn and veggies), spicy scallop roll and an avacado roll.  I took some home and ate it as a midnight snack YUM!!

I didn't take this picture, but felt the need for a picture... too many words, not enough pictures!

I also went through a bunch of old pictures today...  haha.. I love memories... here are a few.

These two lovely ladies are two of my best girlfriends...   Love them to peices

 

4 of the sexiest bridesmaids around.  This is one of my all time favorite pictures.

We were in Mexico for one of my other best friend's weddings

 

Here is the lovely bride and I a few days before the wedding.

Could be look much different!?

Love you Amanda! xoxo

Anywhoo... I'm sure greatful for all my new readers, i'm over 600 visitors in less than a month!

Thank you thank you!!

Take care and enjoy your night,

Jessica

Getting back and a heart to heart.

Just for the record....

Yup, it's true you are...  and so am I!!! Don't forget it! 

So on that note...  so here is the heart to heart part.... it's really hard for me to say this out loud, but hey why not right?  I've gained a bunch of weight lately.  I haven't been active at all, and I haven't been eating as healthy as I should be and I miss it.  My jeans are all tight, the scale is creaping up to a number that makes me unhappy, I couldn't get half way up the wall when I went rock climbing the other day, I am out of breath walking up hill and after a 45 min yoga class my body screamed and yelled at me for 3 days. 

I used to be super active (running, gym, rock climbing, ultimate frisbee, hiking etc) and now I've just lost my motivation for it.  Alot of the loss of motivation has to do with having lots of tummy problems, the loss of my wonderful running buddies (don't worry not a RIP type of loss, just a "got to busy way") and settling into a relationship with the television (when I was single I didn't have cable... 9 years of being cableless and it was fantastic)

Weight has been something I have struggled with my whole life, I was always the bigger girl in school, I got bugged and bullied quite a bit due to it.  When I was into my "party girl" stage, I was usually the last girl in thr group any of the guys talked too...   That stuff is damaging I tell you!!  It's probably mostly in my head but even training for an 10km race, I still didn't feel "in shape", I felt like I accompolished great things but still didn't feel great.

Here I am at the end of my first 8km race!  The 10km race came a few weeks later (which was pretty easy too... the hardest challenge of it was having to dodge the 50,000 people in the race).

I'm not sure I could have been happier here though, the race was a piece of cake!!  I know I'm probably being to hard on myself, but I'm also just being honest. 

So it's time for a change... this morning I just did my own little thing and had fun doing it.   I did 3x songs of arms with weights,  1 song of cardio, 1 song of hula hooping (ouch) and then about 20 mins of yoga.   It's a start right?   I'm not sure where to find my motivation to do all the other stuff I used to do, especially with the cooler/wet weather starting, but I'm going to try! 

Any thoughts or motivation for me?   I could use them today!! :)

Oh a fantastic note I had an AMAZIN G breakfast and 4 hours later I am still happily content.
I haven't had oatmeal in forever, but after reading so many blogs I was re-inspired!!   Ok the picture will only load sideways, even if I try to change it??   This has been happening lots... Any ideas?

 

The oatmeal had crasins, pecans, peanut butter and 3 or 4 chocolate chips.. YUM!!! 

I also tried the kids berry amazing grass and I looooveeeeeeeed it... It was so good.   I guess I'm just a sweet girl (hehe)  I like that extra wee bit of sweetness (it only has 1 gram of sugar compaired to 0 in the adult formual)

Anyways thanks for listening to me.  I look forward to reading your tips and ideas. 

I also have a new email address so feel free to email me too!

dairyfreebetty@hotmail.com

Ciao for now!!

Ps.  We're going for sushi tonight...... YUM!!!!!!!!!!!

You my friends are in for a treat tonight... Red thai pineapple curry...

This dish of mine has evolved into something amazing...  It's actually become on of my favorite things to cook AND eat.   And tonight I'm sharing my secret!!

I decided to be nice to my hunny tonight and make it with chicken (for him) and tofu (for me)
Here are the ingredients
Veggies of choice - mine are red pepper, califlower, brocolli.
Protein of choice - chicken, tofu, prawns, chickpeas are all good.  I would keep the meat white (aka no steak)
1 can of pineapple in juice
1 can FULL FAT coconut milk - I've made the mistake of using "lite" I think all they do is add water to it and it looses it's creaminess.
Fish sauce - if you have never cooked with this little lovely you are truly missing out.   It smells terrible but adds such a fantastic flavor to food.  DO NOT go by the smell or you will never eat it.
A wee bit of sugar
Carb of choice - I use basmati rice, brown rice, couscous (not a fav) or pita/nan bread - Tonight is brown rice and high fiber pita bread
And the star of the show is the Thai Red Curry - I use Asian Home Gourmet.

First thing I did was cook the proteins in a wee bit of coconut oil...

The put the protiens to the side (or leave in the fry pan if you are only making 1 kind.

Add the veggies and saute..

Next up add some of the curry sauce and mix in with coconut milk.    The add the pineapple, juice and all.

Stir all together and let simmer until veggies are to your liking.

This is a good time to add some fish sauce (if it needs to be a bit salter) and sugar for a bit of sweetness.

Then serve over rice,couscous or with pita/nan bread!!

YUM... let me know if you try it!!

I also decided to document the rest of my food today too (almost)

I had for breakfast a GM and an english muffin (no english muffin pic sorry)

Then in the mail... look what I got!!

I'm excited to try the new flavors, as I just don't like the chocolate one...

I spend most of my afternoon at the climbing gym, belaying for a bunch of kids...

I had a few snacks along the way...

So good... and a Soy Chai from my favorite coffee place - they guy had it ready by the time I got to the window because I always order the same thing!! hehe

Then came home and had another GM - with the berry flavor amazing grass - bottom right corner.

It was SO SOUR - but I liked it way better than the chocolate - added a bit of honey to my GM and really enjoyed it.   I also had this...

Ryvita crackers with mayo, tomatoes and a little S&P

Good stuff.

Anyways I am off to eat my curry now and I think we are going curling tonight, that should be interesting! haha

Good night!

Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness!

I spend a lot of the time during the year volunteering and trying to do good things for other people so this totally touched me today!!   If you go to Katie's blog and check out her Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness you will be helping her raise money for a great cause!!   Check out her blog here  Every page that you click on raises a little bit more money and she has some amazing recipes on there.. YUM...    Mom you would love this one  FUDGE BABIES and Banana Butter which sounds INSANE!    So go check out her blog and snoop around a bit!! :)

What are your ways of giving over the holiday season?  Do you do anything special? 

I am really excited about the multi cultrual craft fair next weekend because most of the money goes to the wonderful people who make the crafts from all over the world!!  And they have such cool stuff!!

Onto food!!!!!!  I made a super yummy stir fry yesterday!   Look at all this goodness!!

 

And a close up...

It was full of tofu, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, almonds and sesame seeds.

Poor Dave, he dislikes love tofu but he's a trouper and eats it sometimes when I make it for him!

I don't have much else to report today... I'm going to go grocery shopping today and make a pineapple red curry tonight for dinner!  YUMMY!!

Have a great day!!

Jessica